British Press Photographers' Association Urges Palace to Release Unedited Kate Middleton Photo
The Kate Middleton photo drama continues.
After the Mother's Day portrait of the Princess and her children was released and later recalled by news agencies, Kensington Palace released a statement from Kate apologizing for editing the image. "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother's Day," she wrote. This did not quiet the controversy. Conspiracy theories continue to proliferate, and the whole situation is turning into something of a PR disaster for the royal family.
When photo agencies recalled the photo, they said no replacement would be provided. Kensington Palace has yet to share the original photo. The British Press Photographers' Association has taken issue with this, and called on the Palace to release the image.
"We would urge everyone involved to make the original images available for inspection so that we can assess what has been done, make sure that it doesn’t happen again and allow this story to be the last time that manipulated images are distributed to the media," the BPPA wrote in a statement, posted to their website.
Read BPPA's full statement on the Kate photo controversy here:
The British Press Photographers’ Association applauds the actions of the major agencies who have had the courage to withdraw the recently distributed image showing Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales and her children by issuing a ‘kill notice’. Their suspicions that the photograph had been digitally manipulated are well-founded and it is important for the reputation of press photography that they have acted as swiftly and decisively as they have.
We are lead to believe that HRH The Princess of Wales has said that she edited the image and has apologised. That should not be an end to the matter however. Whether the picture was manipulated to ‘look nice’ by someone who didn’t understand the importance of truth in images or whether there is something else behind their actions is not as important as getting the message out there that it is wrong.
The BPPA has always spoken up in favour of making sure that the public has trust in the photographs produced by our members as well as those who supply images to the news media. This has become more of an issue since pictures supplied by such a variety of sources have become more common and we would urge all of those sources to have a look at item 1, clause i) of the Editors’ Code of Practice which says:
The press must take care not to publish inaccurate or misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.
We would urge everyone involved to make the original images available for inspection so that we can assess what has been done, make sure that it doesn’t happen again and allow this story to be the last time that manipulated images are distributed to the media.
You Might Also Like
